Kaerikomu hodo mo sadamenu wakareji wa miyako no teburi omoide ni seyo - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

帰り来む程も定めぬ別れ路は
都の手振り思ひ出にせよ

Roma-ji: Kaerikomu hodo mo sadamenu wakareji wa miyako no teburi omoide ni seyo
English Translation: On the parting road
where no time is fixed at all
for your coming back,
let the customs of the capital
be a memory you keep
Meaning: On this parting road, with no time set for your return, keep the ways of the capital as your remembrance.
Commentary: Book Seven Parting Poems 479

Headnote: "Composed on the theme of parting when a hundred-poem sequence was presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Composed on the topic of parting for a hundred-poem sequence presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa. On a parting road with no fixed time for coming back, the poet tells the traveler, keep the customs of the capital as a remembrance. However long life in a distant land may last, he hopes the traveler will hold on to the refined ways of the capital, showing the care of the one who sees him off.
The author, "Major Counselor Kinzane," is Fujiwara no Kinzane, son of Provisional Major Counselor Fujiwara no Sanesue, who rose to Major Counselor. He was the father of Taikenmon'in Shōshi, consort of Emperor Toba, and one of the authors of the Horikawa Hyakushu.
This poem and the two that follow, through 481, are parting poems from the Horikawa Hyakushu. In the Horikawa Hyakushu, poets such as Minamoto no Toshiyori and Fujiwara no Kinzane each composed a hundred poems on shared topics in Horikawa's reign, and it became the model for later hundred-poem sequences.
The phrase "miyako no teburi" comes from a Man'yōshū poem by Yamanoue no Okura, who laments that after living long in the provinces he has forgotten the customs of the capital.

First line, "kaerikomu": "mu" is the attributive of the conjectural, "when you will come back." Poem 482 of this book also opens with the same "kaerikomu."
Second line, "hodo mo sadamenu": "hodo" is the time, and "nu" the attributive of the negative "zu," "with no time fixed." It echoes "sadame naki mi" in 482.
Third line, "wakareji wa": "wakareji" is the road of parting, the journey. The word "wakareji" also appears in 487, 491 and 495 of this book.
Fourth line, "miyako no teburi": "teburi" means customs or ways, drawing on the word in Yamanoue no Okura's Man'yōshū poem.
Fifth line, "omoide ni seyo": "seyo" is the imperative of "su," urging the traveler to make it a keepsake for remembering the capital.
Author: Fujiwara no Kinzane
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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